Atheists: No Room for Us in Pro-Life?

Kristine Kruszelnicki +Posted by on Aug 7, 2013 in Dear Theists, Secular Voices (Guest blogs) | 21 comments

My new pro-life atheist friend Sarah Terzo, author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website, recently made a splash on Live Action’s Opinion page, by responding to an article written by a pro-life Christian. I love what Sarah has to say, in part because her experience within the pro-life movement echoes my own. I started Pro-Life Humanists in order to have a platform from which to eventually do full-time pro-life work. (I hope to begin fund-raising for project costs in the fall, and eventually for a salary as my workload and pro-life involvement at atheist functions increases). After many years of being told by prominent pro-life groups that on account of my atheism I could only do public activism with them as a volunteer and not as an officially affiliated staff member, I was left with few other options. These were groups whose public activism comprises only of the use of secular arguments, and yet despite how much they loved my work (to the point of frequently asking me to train their newcomers) I couldn’t be officially on staff simply because I don’t join in the prayer meetings at the end of the day or hold to “spiritual accountability”.

Sarah has graciously allowed Pro-Life Humanists the privilege of re-publishing her words. We will hopefully be seeing more of Sarah’s in work on our site in the future. PLH is almost entirely comprised of atheists, and we welcome Sarah Terzo, and other non-theist pro-lifers like her, with open arms. Hopefully the rest of the movement will eventually follow suit.

To any theist readers of this blog, please read her words carefully. If your faith motivates you to do pro-life work, please ensure that it does not thereby hinder your pro-life work!

———

On being a pro-life atheist

By Sarah Terzo

I was very disappointed to read Live Action’s article “Shawn Carney on the pro-life movement’s greatest victory” in which he says:

“And it has to be a religious movement because we can’t face this on our own. It’s too overwhelming. And when it’s based on our faith in God it means it’s something that’s never going away. There are few things as clearly religious in our country than the pro-life movement. It is one built of people of faith. And that’s our biggest asset….But that’s a crucial point and it’s the most important point – that this is a religious movement and that it is one made up of sinners.”

In fact, there are many pro-lifers who are not Christian. And it’s attitudes like Carney’s that make it very, very difficult for us to stay in the pro-life movement.

I am an atheist pro-lifer. I am not the only one. Secular Pro-life is an organization that draws nonbelievers from many walks of life. I can honestly say, if that supportive group did not exist, I may have left the pro-life movement long ago. Why? Because it is so demoralizing to be in a movement where so many of your fellow workers simply don’t want you there.

A while back, I posted a poll in a pro-life forum, where I asked pro-lifers if they would march side by side or work with a pro-life atheist. Almost half of them said they would not. They told me that they would not want to be “unequally yoked” with a nonbeliever.

Even worse was the reaction I got when I tried to volunteer at the local crisis pregnancy center. They were open and friendly when I told them I wanted to work there. They listened when I told them I had had a great deal of experience discussing abortion on the internet, and had helped numerous women choose life. Then I told them I was an atheist. “Sorry, we are a Christian ministry” the woman said. “We don’t have atheists or nonchristians working here. But you are free to give a donation.”

I asked them if I could have a position where I wouldn’t be called upon to counsel women. Could I do paperwork or answer the phone? The answer was no. They wanted no help from me.

As an experiment, I took up the phone book and called nine crisis pregnancy centers. I did not find a single one that would allow an atheist to volunteer.

It is things like this that sap a person’s strength and bring down their morale. Being a pro-lifer is hard. I get a lot of ostracism from friends and family due to my work at Live Action. I have family members who won’t even speak to me. I have lost friends over the years because they didn’t accept my pro-life work. Getting so little support from pro-lifers is completely disheartening.

I often talk with women who are considering abortion. Yet I find myself reluctant to refer them to crisis pregnancy centers. These are places whose workers feel I am not even worthy to shuffle papers, who wanted nothing to do with me. I usually do refer them to the centers, but I never feel good about it.

As for 40 Days for Life, I tried to listen to one of their webcasts once. They started with a prayer- ok, I understand, they are a Christian group. Then we were treated to fifteen minute of rhetoric about Jesus. They made broad statements such as “We are a movement of Christians…” “As Christians we know…” By the time I was twenty minutes into the broadcast, I had to shut it off. I felt completely alienated and, quite frankly, rejected. It was the most demoralized and hopeless I have ever felt in the pro-life movement.

I actually began wondering- am I wrong? Maybe I shouldn’t be involved in pro-life activities. Maybe I just don’t have a place here. Maybe being pro-life is just for Christians, and I should stop doing so much and just let them go it alone. I have nothing in common with these people. These feelings of demoralization were so strong that I actually stopped working on my pro-life website and signed off my pro-life forums for a week or so. I needed a break to sort out my priorities. It was just too much.

I wrote to 40 Days for Life and gave some suggestions. What if, before the prayer, they said “We are happy to have pro-lifers of all religions listening, but now we want to talk to the Christians..” or “we especially want to talk to the Christians among us…” A simple change of words. It would make so much of a difference. But I never heard back, even though I wrote several times.

It is also tragic that the constant linking of the pro-life movement with religion has hurt the movement. There are many people who see pro-lifers as a bunch of religious fanatics. I have had many conversations with nonbelievers where I have discussed the pro-life issue from various angles. In some of these conversations, by the end, the person agreed with me that abortion was wrong. They thoughtfully told me they had never looked at the issue that way before. But then the conversation turned to getting involved with the pro-life movement- and everything changed. “They are just a bunch of Christian fanatics. I’m not a Christian. Why would I want to work with those holy rollers?” “It’s all about god. I’m just not a white/Republican/Christian/Straight person.”

In focusing on religious opposition to abortion, the pro-life movement has cemented into popular culture the generalization that being pro-life is the Christian thing to be. And being pro-choice is the nonreligious thing to be. So many atheists have never considered the pro-life position because they see it as a facet of Christian dogma. They wouldn’t consider going to a pro-life rally or reading a pro-life book in the way they wouldn’t consider going to church or giving their money to Pat Robertson. It simply isn’t for them.

Not to mention that many pregnant women, the very women we most want to reach, are turned off by religious rhetoric. When sidewalk counselors go up to women entering clinics and tell them “Jesus wants you to have your baby” or “the Bible says abortion is wrong” non-Christians who have no interest in religion are not likely to be moved. Roderick P, Murphy runs a crisis pregnancy center, one of the rare few that allows non-Christians to volunteer. He tells this story:

“A former director of Daybreak, a Boston-area CBC once used this true anecdote about educated women clients in an appeal letter:

Carol was afraid. How could this happen to me? She looked in the Yellow Pages and found Daybreak. Carol was a young professional woman and she was sure she wanted an abortion. She came in for a pregnancy test over lunch hour. She had questions about abortion procedures and their safety.

The counselor was able to connect with Carol closely enough to discuss risks, emotional scarring and the development of life inside her. Then she handed Carol a brochure full of great information that would further answer her questions. As Carol thumbed through the booklet, she seemed grateful for such accurate information… And then she turned to the last page. Across it was the name of the organization that printed the brochure. Among believers it was a reputable name. But because the word “Christian” stood out so clearly to Carol, she tossed the brochure into the garbage, and walked out. In that instant, our opportunity to reach her was gone.”(1)

How many Carols have there been? Some people can’t be reached with Christian arguments. They simply can’t.

Atheists get treated very badly by the pro-life movement. And pro-lifers who follow religions other than Christianity are also treated badly. There is a pro-life pagans group on Facebook, and they often attract trolls. The sad thing is that the majority of trolls they get are not pro-choicers, but pro-lifers. Pro-lifers who try to convert them to Christianity, accuse them of child sacrifice, or tell them they can’t be pro-life. It is a sad thing. I wonder how many of them will finally give up and leave the pro-life movement.

There is a reason why the pro-life movement is predominantly Christian. And it is not the reason that Carney thinks it is. The reason is that non-Christians don’t feel welcome. And while right now the pro-life movement is not exclusively Christian, if the majority of pro-lifers have the same approach to pro-life work as Carney, it soon will be – because all the non-Christians will be gone.

1. Roderick P Murphy. Stopping Abortions at Death’s Door (Southbridge, Massachusetts: Taig Publishing 2009) 57 to 58

————-
Thanks again, Sarah Terzo for allowing us to share your words with our readers! 🙂

Facebook

Twitter

Digg

Tumblr

StumbleUpon

Kristine Kruszelnicki +Posted by on May 12, 2013 in Dear Theists | 10 comments

As the 2013 Canadian March for Life launched to a live band singing “We Want to see Jesus lifted high” (to be followed up with choruses of “Yes! Yes! Lord” and a myriad of other worship songs), I was yet again reminded of how out of place I am as an atheist in the pro-life movement. I’m pro-life because every embryology or biology text book tells me that a new human entity comes into existence at fertilization, and I believe that all human beings – even at their youngest and earliest stage of development – deserve equal right to life and protection. Most assuredly, my goal in being in the movement is not to “see Jesus lifted high”.

I’m not alone. It’s not merely pro-life atheists who are apt to feel excluded from pro-life involvement. How likely is it that a Jew might want to see Jesus lifted high? Or a pro-life Muslim? Or even a pro-life pagan or the myriads of Hare Krishna followers who respect all life, including animal life? I have met pro-lifers who affiliate with all these non-Christian belief systems, but few of them feel comfortable participating in traditional pro-life events. Is the goal of the pro-life movement Christian evangelism? Or is it truly to save unborn lives?

I addressed in blog entry Pray to End Abortion? why I believe the tendency to paint the pro-life movement as something that is Christian-only is problematic and detrimental to our movement. To reiterate briefly: in order to win a political majority in this country we will require the yes vote of people from all religious and political stripes. Wearing our most religious colours so loudly, our movement tells every onlooker who does not seek to affiliate with Christianity, that they should just go ahead and ignore us. We further the misconception that abortion, unlike every social ill prior, simply cannot cease within secular society.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t think that Christians should necessarily hide their faith. I appreciate that for many, it is their religious convictions that compel them to care about “the least of these”, per the instruction of Jesus. I may be embarrassed by the men in feathered hats, the church groups chanting the rosary, and the man doing interpretive dancing with his giant crucifix, but I do respect their right to be a part of the movement. I do however, think that all Christians should seriously consider the appropriateness of their public displays and ask themselves whether there might not be a better way of reaching a curious onlooker with sound pro-life arguments, than by performing a religious ritual. It is after all science and reason that bolster the position that the “least of these” is in fact one of us.

That being said, my plea to organizers of the March for Life and similar public events is this: Can we please keep the public face of the pro-life movement secular and inclusive to individuals of all faith and no faith? Let groups and individuals pray and chant on their own if they must. Church groups certainly have a right to their vigils and prayer meetings. But when we stand on the podium to address the nation, can we set aside the exclusive Christian prayers and songs? History is after all ripe with inspirational peace and freedom songs to remind us all that we are following in a long line of champions of human rights.

Science and reason provide arguments that can be understood and received by anyone, regardless of their faith convictions. It is my deepest hope that from here on in, the pro-life movement will collectively seek to see reason and biological facts lifted high.

Kristine +Posted by on May 8, 2013 in Dear Theists, GLBT | 4 comments

My dear pro-life friends,

On the eve of Canada’s annual March for Life, the event commemorating May 14th 1969 when abortion first became legal in Canada, the brilliant but often offensive comedian George Carlin comes to mind. Every year I listen to members of parliament and prominent pro-life speakers stand at the podium and declare the pro-life movement’s intent to not only bring abortion to an end, but also to “bring this country back to God” and worse still “to restore the traditional meaning of marriage as one man and one woman”. The mixing of issues grated on me even when I was a theist and now that I’m an atheist it does so even more.

Carlin had this to say about pro-lifers, in his comedy piece on abortion:
“Catholics and other Christians are against abortions, and they’re against homosexuals. Well who has less abortions than homosexuals?! Leave these fucking people alone, for Christ sakes! Here is an entire class of people guaranteed never to have an abortion! And the Catholics and Christians are just tossing them aside! You’d think they’d make natural allies.”

While Carlin’s entire Back in Town track entitled “Abortion“ is brimming with fallacious arguments, on this point I believe he hit the bull’s eye! I personally know pro-life atheists and theists who will no longer come to the pro-life events because they felt entirely demonized by pro-life speakers on account of their homosexuality or bisexuality. Individuals who would happily advocate to save children from prenatal discrimination and death are being told both subtly and overtly that they are really not welcome to participate in the movement just the way they are.

As a pro-life atheist I have faced similar discrimination repeatedly. It so happens I have a will of steel, but I sympathize with those who don’t have the resolve to subject themselves to a brood of evangelists thirsty for souls to change and purify. Attending the March for Life last year with a sign that read “This is what an Atheist Pro-gay, Pro-life Feminist looks like“. I found myself on several occasions being literally swarmed with priests and other Catholics who wanted to debate me and point out “the absurd and impossibly anti-life philosophy of claiming to be both pro-gay and pro-life.” Instead of embracing me as an ally and being happy that someone outside the Catholic church agreed and wanted to fight with them on the matter of fetal rights, I was viewed with skepticism and even a certain amount of disdain.

The fact is, just as there are pro-life atheists and humanists, there are pro-life gays and lesbians, and the Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians does a great job of explaining the many reasons why. If pro-life theists turn gays and lesbians away or refuse to accept them as they are without trying to change them, is it any surprise that most openly gay individuals identify with the far more welcoming pro-choice community? As with atheists, members of the GLBT community can either be your pro-life allies or your enemies. I may be bad at math, but I don’t think that a movement seeking a pro-life majority can really afford to toss its would-be allies overboard.

Tomorrow is another March for Life and my open request to all pro-life Canadians is this: stop mixing the issues. We all belong to this movement. Please do not demand that we all become heterosexual theists abstaining until a condomless marriage before you will embrace us as one of your own. There is more than one way to create a world that does not kill its preborn children.

Kristine +Posted by on May 1, 2013 in Dear Theists | 1 comment

‘Signs, signs, everywhere signs,” says the classic oldie. Go to any traditional pro-life event and you’ll see them: Virginal Mary and child emblazoned in a holy light, the famed pro-life icon Lady of Guadalupe, and rosary-bedecked signs a-plenty, imploring us all to “pray to end abortion”.

To the secular onlooker, the display of religiosity is plainly silly. Not only does it reaffirm the widely held belief that the pro-life position is merely a religious one to be disregarded by anyone outside of religion, it furthermore asks prayer of those least likely to be inclined to pray against a practice they don’t see as wrong.

But is that so big a deal? Other than looking silly, can any harm come from overtly religious pro-life presentations and public requests for prayer? Here are three reasons why I believe the signs are a detriment:

1. Image matters. The pro-life movement isn’t supposed to be a pep-rally, and it’s about time we start acting like we’re trying to move with our movement. How pro-lifers are perceived matters to how our message will be received. Religious icons and calls to prayer may comfort and reaffirm the faith-based pro-lifer, but they do little to persuade those passing by on the sidewalk that we are anything more than a church that fell out into the street. If our goal is to see more of them join us, we’d do well to not given them further cause to disregard us.

2. Rallies and demonstrations are an opportunity for education. We know we have good arguments on our side. Science, humanist philosophy, and reason combine to absolutely work in our favour. When addressing an increasingly secular world, these are the best and sharpest tools we ought to be pulling out of our kit. The average onlooker to a pro-life event may never have dialogued with an intelligent pro-lifer and our signs may be their only source of education. If our best case appears to be icons of Mary and appeals to prayer, onlookers are all the more likely to throw out the fetus with the holy water.

3. Prayer might be used in place of action. I can vividly recall attempting to recruit pro-life Christians to pro-life activism and outreach events. Too often I would hear “I’ll pray for you guys” in place of a commitment to participate. If you were choking, would you hope the person nearest you would merely pray to dislodge the item in your windpipe? Or would you hope that he would use the best tools and training at his disposition and perform the Heimlich?

The idea that the best thing one can do for the unborn is to pray for them, ignores the myriad of things one can do to help make abortion unthinkable. If it turns out that there is a God, we have to accept that for some reason or another, he has permitted abortion to remain legal and is permitting abortion to continue, despite 40 years of prayers being prayed on behalf of the unborn. Humanism offers a solution that works whether or not there is a God listening to prayers. Humanism says: we made the mess, we should clean the mess. I can only presume that if there is a God he would want us busy doing our best to change minds and laws with the means within our power, not sitting around waiting for him to do all the work.

You’ve prayed to end abortion for more than 40 years. Why not try adding reason, science, logic and philosophical into your arsenal, and see if we can’t finally bring abortion to an end?